Damn, so close. Was that wrong to say? Yeah but still, damn.

BC: It was a long time ago. This is the first time I've actually ever related the story, written or otherwise. I'm mostly over it.

This is your most powerful recollection yet that you've posted.. I can only imagine what it took for you to post it.

BC: I had my finger on the delete button for a while before it went up. I figured I had to talk about it sometime.

Perhaps the most sobering thing I have read in quite some time.

Given the gravity of the situation I most likely would have made the same decision. It takes mental fortitude to dredge something like this from the bowels of ones mind. Kudo's for being strong enough to share this with the world.

Christ dude. That was intense.

It got all serious in here all of the sudden.

BC: I'm at my mother's this week. She's still married to Mike, and they fight all the time. I couldn't make myself write anything funny around that. Don't worry, Friday will be better.

I'm speechless, but in a good way. Great story.

Wow.
Just wow.
I now have an entirely new level of respect for you.

Bad ass man bad ass...

Did your mother ever see what was about to happen? I mean, did she ever find out (other than by reading this?)

BC: Nope. Never talked about it before.

You should be afraid to be a killer? Baby doll, under the circumstances, you should be afraid not to be. No flaw in protecting yourself or your family.

I'm glad you are around to type the story, man.

Fantastic recollection. Your best writing so far.

Damn BC, I was on the edge of my seat through the whole damn story. My grandfather once said "Never pull a gun on someone unless you are going to use it". The whole time I read the story, I know you were "going to use it".

I remember a comment you wrote in a TMMB posting that you could not stand the smell of a bowl of pennies on a table. I am OCD myself so that comment stuck with me. After reading this story, I understand about the pennies.

I'm glad you were able to share this story. It's very intense, and from a writer's perspective it's extremely well-written. You have an ear for language and strong mental fortitude. I salute you, man.

This is the most powerful story I have read in a long time, maybe even ever. You are a gifted writer, and clearly a great person who is always looking to do the right thing. I have so much respect for you and hope that you will continue to share your stories for a long time. Although part of me hopes you run out of this kind of material the other part checks this site everyday hoping and praying there is another story on this site.

Good luck in life and in writing.

Another reaffirmation that despite your parents attemtps, you can still be a good person. I'm glad you didn't have to actually pull the gun on him, from what I've heard, that's definitley a bridge you can't un-burn, even with your mother.

...

Holy...fucking...shit.

Nothing beyond that seems appropriate.

That was seriously powerful. i could hear the creaking stairs in your writing.

Intense. Very intense. Good writing.

Fuck college, you shoulda joined the Marines.

I've never commented here before, and I have been reading your work for sometime.. Since DDHM went up, of course.

That by far, in my mind, has established you as one of the best writers ever. I felt everything you felt in this post.

The raw emotion of how you felt with your finger on the trigger.. And hell, my own grandfather once said something to that effect.

I just wanted to say, I've laughed to your work, and also been moved, but never like this. I got an adrenaline rush, good sir. That takes a lot for a big, goofy guy like me.

Man, what a buzzkill. I was hoping to find out what your dad did to the telephone poles in your neighborhood.

Seriously, though, I've never read anything about an experience like that which was written with such realism. My heart was pounding, my vision was tunneled, and my hands were heavy with the weight of that shotgun. You put me in your head, behind your eyes - in your body. You are truly an excellent writer.

Even though you clearly don't need any further affirmation that your writing skills are more than adept, I wanted to say thank you for injecting some excitement into my afternoon yet again. You never fail to provide a good read.

"She's still married to Mike"?!

BC: Loves a grand thing, isn't it?

i have now read this entry twice. i am still not certan exatly when the police showd up. but (if i understand ) if they hadn't and you had stayd in you room your mother might have been killed. i don't think going up there with a shot gun makes you a bad person.

she's still with him!!? please tell me he's on some sort of anty anger drug now. other wise that's mad

Out of curiosity, did you mean "shepherd"?

With that said, very good story.

BC: I didn't name this story. I couldn't think of at title, so I left it up to my editor.

Just to be clear - you were already home when Mike turned up, so you definitely knew that your mother and George were fucking. How long had you known for, and did you ever confront her about it before this incident?

BC: Bryan caught them once. She accused him of trying to prevent her happiness. Let me be clear about this: my mother is kind of nuts and definitely immoral. I just didn't think she deserved to die.

I do enjoy the stories that have humor in them, however dark it may be. However, for all it's worth, I come here to read the serious side, too. As funny as people think stories about a shitty childhood seem to be, most of them would have a hard time laughing after living through it.

Thank you for relating that.

If I had the chance, I would have killed the guy that beat on my mom.

You're not alone.

Fucking harsh, man.

Yeah this was definitely different than anything else I've read. I've dealt with the same thing before and it's definitely not fun. The adrenaline rush is insane, but not in a good way. Kudos for having balls...to actually be capable of doing it, and to write about it in a very public space.

BC, this is raw, real, excellent, poetic and gripping writing here, baby, I loved this one very much - one of my favourites of yours yet - actually, this one's probably my favourite. Yeah. Something about the unbridled complete honesty of it, very pure...

BC: Did you just call me baby?

Did this just happen recently?

This was your best piece by far. The writing in and of itself was incredible, and the content was INTENSE. I was hoping you turned his brains inside out with a load of buckshot...but it's almost certainly better that you didn't.

BC: I was fifteen at the time.

Yeah! I call a lot of people I like "baby," habit 'o mine...

BC: No problem. I was just verifying.

My father once hit my mother. I told him that if he ever touched her again that I would wake him up in the middle of the night. With a shovel. There hasn't been another "incident" since.

Cowards won't be cowards when they know that someone is watching them, waiting for them to show their true colors.

Has Mike hit her since then?

BC: Yes, and she just keeps going to back to him. Again and again and again. All I care about at this point is the kids.

Good work, BC. Good work. Glad you lucked out and avoided the legal fiasco which would have ensued if you pulled the trigger - but not before you had the chance to make the decision.

Your grandad sounds like such an awesome guy.

Glad you lucked out and avoided the legal fiasco..

Hmm.. I'm kinda glad that he didn't end up leaving two small children fatherless. Regardless of his failures as a human being, his death would have left them incredibly traumatized.

"Regardless of his failures as a human being, his death would have left them incredibly traumatized."
No. Living with some people, the abuse that some people hand out, is more traumatic than watching them die.

Powerful piece of writing man - this is my first time reading here, hell of an introduction.
Dont sweat the killer, if you still see it in your hands. We've all got it - Its human. Neither good nor bad, simply human - the morality is in how you use it. You did no wrong that night - nor would you have, even had you laid him down.

I really really wish I hadn't been listening to Steps "Better best forgotten" whilst reading this. I was reading it more to get through it, than to experience it and really feel like I've missed out.

Well I'll read it again in a year's time when I've forgotten most of it. In silence. I want to hear the stairs creak.

Did he go to jail? Obviously not for too long if he's still with your mother. But my stepdad used to hit my mum but then he went to jail. Probably for because he was a drug dealer.
Great writing BC. That must have been way hard to recall.

BC: He was there for like a day. My mom would not press charges.

Wow. This story was so charged with emotion it made me shed tears, I'm not even sure what kind of tears they were. I'm amazed you have come out of this a sane person.

At this point I feel for your little brother and sister I know what its like growing up in a dysfunctional family its not fun at all.

The guy is a total piece of shit. Blowing his head off with a shotgun is just, and does not make you a bad person.

Surely the state can get involved somehow and get the young ones away from him, can't they?

BC, did anyone die? I seem like a little dipshit typing this, but i got confused.